Old school scope for this lunar image

[Kanadalainen]

Jan 10, 2020

I arrived home around 1900 and cooked up some pickerel fillets for my family, along with some salad and baked potatoes. Yum, tasty and fresh.. I should do this more often.

They cleaned up the dishes and and I set up my old Celestron 80 for some attempts at moon imaging. The weather has returned back to normal - no more of this -1 to -7 stuff, we are in the deep freeze proper.
The skies had been exceptional all day, so I was itching to get out for some quick and dirty imaging.

Temp: -22*C
Wind: nil
Transparency: very good to excellent
Seeing: OK
Bortle 8 in my backyard.
Camera: Canon 60D unmodified
Scope: C80 doublet, Telrad
Camera settings: ISO 3200, shutter 1/2500

Notes: Achieving proper focus is for whatever reason a major challenge for me. I don't use a digital helper for this but I think its my next technical hurdle. I found focus with the focuser almost completely racked out. JOY... The fine focus knob worked the charm. I removed my own spectacles and used the Canon's 10x live view to play with the focus. Much better than earlier this week with the dob.

So, this time out I felt that my focusing is improving.. Finally!

I took about 30 lights, 20 darks, etc etc.

When I learn how to use my free stacking program I will show you some stacked stuff. (There is so much to learn about AP - this is incredibly humbling).

Below is a single image... thanks for looking.

[Don Quixote]

Good show Ian !
I am glad you had a clear night to put the old school scope to work on the moon.
Thank you.

[notFritzArgelander]

Nicely done. Weather normal..... ?

[Kanadalainen]

Good show Ian !
I am glad you had a clear night to put the old school scope to work on the moon.
Thank you.

Thanks Mark.. the great thing about old scopes is that the views don't degrade.

[Kanadalainen]

Nicely done. Weather normal..... ?

Lets say, closer to what could be construed as such..unfortunately. . Dipping to -28*C tonight - thus first truly cold evening this winter.

[Kanadalainen]

Hello again all,

The focal length of the optical train is about 910 mm. It would be fun to try the 2x GSO Barlow on this rig.

Here is a couple of images of the gear used:

The red dot finder on the hot shoe of the Canon is a bit of overkill.
Kind regards,

[Graeme1858]

Dipping to -28*C tonight - thus first truly cold evening this winter.

You must be well hard!!! :cool:

[Thefatkitty]

Great pics Ian, both of the Moon and your scope That scope is really nice, especially with the GSO on it. I'm guessing you took those telescope pics not long after you brought it in; I can see the frost on it Looks familiar, at least from last year. The winter here so far has been sweater weather; only one night did it drop to -15C, so two sweaters for that.

I'm surprised to hear and see your focuser is so far out to achieve focus. My C80-HD is almost all the way in, and my orange C80 just misses it with the focuser all the way in, so I have to barlow it. I just find that interesting. Between you, me and Bryan there's five C80's, be interesting to do a "focal comparison"

And I found it funny, in a good way, that you do exactly what I do; use the LCD on the camera at 10X. As a bonus, I also employ a magnifying glass for enhancing that 10X view, and that's with my glasses. More optics between me & the camera than the camera and subject

Great shot of the Moon too! As for stacking, PIPP & AS2 are pretty easy; I can do it so it'll be a walk in the park for you.

Glad to see you on here more often; but I get it. Here's hoping for a calmer and clearer 2020!

All the best mon ami,

[Kanadalainen]

Dipping to -28*C tonight - thus first truly cold evening this winter.

You must be well hard!!! :cool:

Well, the landscape is beyond frozen. Ice crystals in the air, the fresh snow becomes "smokey" in texture and the block heaters in cars need to be plugged in so that they will start in the morning.

[Kanadalainen]

Great pics Ian, both of the Moon and your scope That scope is really nice, especially with the GSO on it. I'm guessing you took those telescope pics not long after you brought it in; I can see the frost on it Looks familiar, at least from last year. The winter here so far has been sweater weather; only one night did it drop to -15C, so two sweaters for that.

I'm surprised to hear and see your focuser is so far out to achieve focus. My C80-HD is almost all the way in, and my orange C80 just misses it with the focuser all the way in, so I have to barlow it. I just find that interesting. Between you, me and Bryan there's five C80's, be interesting to do a "focal comparison"

And I found it funny, in a good way, that you do exactly what I do; use the LCD on the camera at 10X. As a bonus, I also employ a magnifying glass for enhancing that 10X view, and that's with my glasses. More optics between me & the camera than the camera and subject

Great shot of the Moon too! As for stacking, PIPP & AS2 are pretty easy; I can do it so it'll be a walk in the park for you.

Glad to see you on here more often; but I get it. Here's hoping for a calmer and clearer 2020!

All the best mon ami,

Thanks Mark... I have had good luck with this scope. YES you are right, the scope was just beginning to frost up, Followed by a good sweat session as it gradually warmed.

That's an interesting finding about the focal length... perhaps their polished glass out of the Vixen factory is slightly different in each example?

I keep the specs off to focus as my vision in close distance is very good. 10X really helps. What is PIPP and AS2? I'm using Deep Sky Stacker, sorry for my ignorance.

Salut Mark

[Thefatkitty]

Hey Ian, you must have gotten up early today; just thinking of the time zones...

PIPP is for aligning and cropping images from your camera. Works well for planets (obviously), and the moon and sun. I assume you're taking pics with the RAW format. AS2 will stack the individual images output by PIPP into one image, bringing out the detail. From there, you can sharpen the output with Registax or the like

All the best,

[Makuser]

Hi Ian. A superb supper and a great lunar image with the "old" telescope. You have nice contrast and great ejecta rays in your capture. Thanks for sharing this with us on here Ian, and the best of regards.

[Graeme1858]

Well, the landscape is beyond frozen. Ice crystals in the air, the fresh snow becomes "smokey" in texture and the block heaters in cars need to be plugged in so that they will start in the morning.

How do you stop your eyes from freezing over?!!!

[SKEtrip]

Good Morning Ian - Enjoyed the pics of moon & scope, well done!
About to see our first really cold days here, we'll hit about -10°C.. you can keep yours.
Interesting day on the Central Plains from Tornadoes in Oklahoma to freezing rain in KC & almost blizzards in Nebraska.
I'm over it already...

[bladekeeper]

That is way too cold. Sheesh! Cold enough to freeze your gooseberries.

Nice image, Ian!

Here is an image of my C80 configured for lunar imaging:

I've got the cam stuffed into a 35mm extension tube, which is in turn stuffed into the body of a GSO 2" barlow (lens removed), which is in turn stuffed into the GSO Crayford. That gets things pushed back far enough that I have plenty of wiggle room on either side to the focal point to achieve focus.

As for focus, since you mentioned a possible electronic option, I've found, at least for myself, that manually focusing works much better with lunar imaging than electronic. Electronic is wonderful with deep sky imaging, but I found it to be very frustrating with lunar. If you do get one, I highly recommend one that has a clutch that can be release for manual adjustment.

[Kanadalainen]

Well, the landscape is beyond frozen. Ice crystals in the air, the fresh snow becomes "smokey" in texture and the block heaters in cars need to be plugged in so that they will start in the morning.

How do you stop your eyes from freezing over?!!!

I'm no tough guy, but honestly its not bad. No issues with hands or face. The key is the wind, last evening was calm. Simply have the right equips - a pair of gloves, long undies, overalls, a good touque is key. Even my camera batteries didn't seem to care much. I've lived here much of my life (except for 3 years in Toronto) and I guess you can get used to anything? Cheers

[Kanadalainen]

Hi Ian. A superb supper and a great lunar image with the "old" telescope. You have nice contrast and great ejecta rays in your capture. Thanks for sharing this with us on here Ian, and the best of regards.

Thank you Marshall - I had a leftover piece of fish for lunch. Its local and super tasty.. no characteristic fishy flavour - I did it up with just a light dash of curry sauce. Thanks again...

[Kanadalainen]

Hey Ian, you must have gotten up early today; just thinking of the time zones...

PIPP is for aligning and cropping images from your camera. Works well for planets (obviously), and the moon and sun. I assume you're taking pics with the RAW format. AS2 will stack the individual images output by PIPP into one image, bringing out the detail. From there, you can sharpen the output with Registax or the like

All the best,

Thanks Mark - I was up at 7 - headed out for my exercise. This is great information, much appreciated! I have some experience with photoshop, bridge and Lightroom 2019 I've heard good things about Registax.

DSS seems to be straightforward... I will work on it this weekend and try to get a product for you to peruse.

[Kanadalainen]

Good Morning Ian - Enjoyed the pics of moon & scope, well done!
About to see our first really cold days here, we'll hit about -10°C.. you can keep yours.
Interesting day on the Central Plains from Tornadoes in Oklahoma to freezing rain in KC & almost blizzards in Nebraska.
I'm over it already...

Morning SKE -Thanks for your nice compliment.

WRT weather - I know right?? My one week in Florida at Xmas was my reminder of how much of the population does it.

[Kanadalainen]

That is way too cold. Sheesh! Cold enough to freeze your gooseberries.

Nice image, Ian!

Here is an image of my C80 configured for lunar imaging:

IMG_0095.JPG

I've got the cam stuffed into a 35mm extension tube, which is in turn stuffed into the body of a GSO 2" barlow (lens removed), which is in turn stuffed into the GSO Crayford. That gets things pushed back far enough that I have plenty of wiggle room on either side to the focal point to achieve focus.

As for focus, since you mentioned a possible electronic option, I've found, at least for myself, that manually focusing works much better with lunar imaging than electronic. Electronic is wonderful with deep sky imaging, but I found it to be very frustrating with lunar. If you do get one, I highly recommend one that has a clutch that can be release for manual adjustment.

Thanks Bryan!

I'm with you... I'll continue to plug away at manual focus for the moon. Interesting to hear the DSOs are an entirely different beast. My manual focusing on DSOs is coming along but I still am sure I can do much better.

Your rig is fascinating...love it! Can I ask a few questions? What is the model of camera? Pixel size? Different from what you use for DSO's or on your Stellarvue?

I have the extensions and doodads to stretch it out...

Sorry for all the questions.